President Woodrow Wilson’s
Fourteen Points
In January, 1918 American President
Woodrow Wilson provided the American
public with the rationale behind American
involvement in the European war.
The potential costs of this involvement were
very high, and Americans needed a noble
cause to justify such a sacrifice.
These points also became a staple for
consideration at the Paris Peace Conference at
the end of the war. *
Wilson's innovative proposals for the peace
were a significant departure from the way that
Europeans had dealt with peace-making in the
past (based on winning something for your
country).
Wilson, however, was determined that this
would be a just peace, a "peace without
victory". Wilson hoped that his vision would
help to establish a new world order - a lasting
peace, through which countries would work
together to resolve conflict through nonmilitary means.
The most important of his fourteen points were:
A. Outlawing alliances
B. Freedom of the seas
C. Free trade
D. Disarmament
E. Return of (Russian) territories conquered by
Germany
F. Alsace-Lorraine returned to France
G. Self-Determination
H. Formation of a League of Nations
Self-Determination:
Self-Determination:
- Ethnic groups would vote on the issue of whom
they would prefer to live with or to be governed by.
Considerations:
- This would dismantle many of Europe's
declining empires.
- Created many problems as lines re-drawn:
many minorities still scattered within the
borders of new countries.
- Gave hope to subject peoples around the
world.
- Some notable exceptions that contributed to
World War II
Austro-Hungarian Empire
Ottoman Empire
Collective Security:
• community of nations that would guarantee each
other's safety
• idea that peace-loving nations could use arbitration to
solve disputes and, furthermore, that the threat of
collective action on the part of all members would be
enough to deter aggressors. If that was not enough,
economic sanctions would be imposed by all members
against the aggressor.
• Idealistic
• required the formation of an international body, a
"League of Nations" with memberships to countries
willing to replace self-interest with a mutual concern
for the security of all member nations.